Duke:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Best-Case Scenario: <\/strong>Final Four appearance.\u00a0 I don’t think the Singler\/Scheyer duo is championship material.<\/p>\n Best Guess: <\/strong>Sweet 16. It will be interesting to see what Plumlee brings to the table, though.<\/p>\n UConn:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of talent has left Storrs, but there’s still a fair amount left.\u00a0 Kemba Walker <\/strong>is a championship-caliber PG, and will be one of the most exciting players in the country.\u00a0 Jerome Dyson <\/strong>is a steady veteran with him in the backcourt.\u00a0 Stanley Robinson <\/strong>is an NBA-level athlete, but isn’t very skilled.\u00a0 The rest of the frontcourt is inexperienced, but with Gavin Edwards <\/strong>and Alex Oriakhi<\/strong>, they could make a run at leading the nation in blocks for a ridiculous 9th straight year.\u00a0 This team’s biggest weakness will be outside shooting, as they made ZERO 3’s in this game.\u00a0 But if Jim Calhoun can work his magic, they could be tough enough defensively to win a lot of games.<\/p>\n Best-case scenario:\u00a0 <\/strong>Final Four appearance<\/p>\n Best Guess:\u00a0 <\/strong>Sweet 16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Throughout the college basketball season, I’ll give my observations on random teams and players, assessing where they are at that point of the season, and looking ahead to where they could be in March.\u00a0 We’ll give it the highly creative … Continue reading ![\"scheyer\"](\"http:\/\/www.thehoopsreport.com\/images\/scheyer.jpg\")
As usual, Coach K’s team will be led by the perimeter players (whatever happened to the Shelden Williams, Carlos Boozers and Elton Brands?).\u00a0 Kyle Singler <\/strong>is being called a National Player of the Year candidate, but he might be slightly over-rated.\u00a0 Senior PG Jon Scheyer<\/strong> might be the best player on the team and should have a great year.\u00a0 Nolan Smith <\/strong>is getting a lot of hype, but there’s a reason he was benched last year.\u00a0 He’s been moved off the ball, but is still a\u00a0big of a question mark in my book.\u00a0 The big men are nothing special but look improved from last year, and they’ll add a highly-touted freshman, Mason Plumlee, <\/strong>when he returns from an injury in a few weeks.\u00a0 They have only 3 scholarship guards on the roster, and one is a freshman, so depth could be an issue there.<\/p>\n